Why You Should Own a Sketchbook

After spending an afternoon diving into a mammoth pile of my belongings that I’m giving away to charity, (mainly due to the fact I don’t want Channel 4 making a documentary about a 27-year-old Bristol based design hoarder!) I stumbled across all 30+ of my sketchbooks. From early school days, through to hipster friendly Moleskin sketchbooks reserved for only when I had a really ‘cool’ idea and an erasure. A few hours passed and I found myself losing track of time simply flicking through them. It was a self-indulgent, but insightful experience that made me appreciate the importance of owning a sketchbook.

Call me old fashioned but in most cases when starting a design brief, either self-initiated or professional I always find myself with a pencil in hand. I’ve discovered my own creativity flows much better from a piece of lead or even a half chewed biro. If you scroll through Fiasco’s portfolio you will see many cases of our initial sketchbook workings, for example the image below which Ben created whilst working on character concepts for Aardman.

Aardman initial sketch development

The natural design process for us here at Fiasco always seems to be a one where the pencil comes before the mouse. It’s quick, it’s instant and it creates absolutely no barriers between you and the artwork. Even when designing wireframes for websites, the speed in which we can experiment with layout design doesn’t compare to sketching ideas out.

One of my favourite designers Noma Bar recently confirmed my trust in sketchbooks when I saw him speak at WEDF not too long ago. Explaining that most of his working day consisted of sitting outside with a sketchbook in his lap and that he would only think about turning on his computer when he got home in the evenings.

Noma-Sketchbook

Noma Bar’s Sketch book, exploring concepts for ‘Falling Man’ book cover.

Here at Fiasco we feel only good ideas can come from owning a sketchbook, we feel they become a catalogue of our own ideas. Not all great ideas perhaps, but those dodgy sketches that don’t quite make sense help the good ideas stand out and come to fruition! Owning a sketchbook has become mandatory for myself as a designer and honestly I could not live with out one.

Feeling extra brave? Do as the infamous type designer David Quay does and only use permanent pens in your sketchbooks, forcing you to learn from every mistake you make! Whether you’re an appreciater of the good old fashioned sketchbook, or you think they’re a waste of your creative time, we would love to hear your opinions below.

Happy doodling!

 


Warning: Undefined variable $postID in /www/fiascodesign_482/public/wp-content/themes/fd/parts/old-post-content.php on line 58

< 1 Mins

The Big Fat Design Quiz of the YearAs another year draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on the standout projects and moments of creative genius from the past year. In a year that saw the birth of a royal baby, the harlem shake, a dancing pony, the first ever 24 hour music videos and more of Miley Cyrus

Steve Edge Bristol

3 Mins

Steve Edge: Design, dyslexia and dressing for a partyMy usual gripe with design talks is that they can often be a little one-dimensional. Most are used as an opportunity for a portfolio brag or an exercise in name dropping when all I really want to hear about is the people and processes behind the glossy images and flashy websites, and what I can […]

2 Mins

Welcome to Bristol!Welcome to Bristol! It’s early October and the streets are teeming with fresh young student faces, itching to explore their new city. I could patronise you and pretend that the following Bristol-centric facts are for their benefit, but really this influx of newbies is just a great excuse to celebrate our beloved Bristol. Seriously though, […]

3 Mins

Calm Down Dear, It’s Just A Logo DesignEarlier this morning, after 30 days of different designs Yahoo! finally, and rather anticlimactically, released their new logo design onto the world. Along with the new design came a rather baffling statement from Marissa Meyer, the CEO of Yahoo! who professed to creating the logo herself with an in-house team over the “majority” of a weekend. […]

2 Mins

Why WordPress? Here are just a few of the advantages of using WordPress as a CMSThis year the publishing platform WordPress is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. With parties all over the world, and over 66 million installations it is apparently used on some 18% of the entire internet! So, for those of you who don’t really know what all the fuss is about, here’s a round-up of why we use […]

Here London 2013

3 Mins

Here London 2013On Friday 21st June we attended the second annual Here London event. Taking place at London’s Royal Geographical Society (RGS), Here is a one-day “fast-paced festival of creativity”. A creative symposium of “inspirational talks, experiments and live elements”. Curated by the team behind It’s Nice That, this year’s event boasted a healthy roster of thirteen […]

James Fairbank Rapha bikes

3 Mins

Ride + Design: Branding, Design & Bike CultureWords and images by Sean McGowan Ride + Design is a one-off event in Bristol hosted by the Arnolfini and put together by The West of England Design Forum and local Bristol digital agency Pixillion Digital. The unique one-day event set out to explore the close relationship of bicycles and design, bringing together some of […]

3 Mins

Apple Redesign iOS7 & Highlight The Value Of Graphic DesignThe western world is rapidly waking up to the role a graphic designer plays in modern society and Apple are playing a large part in enlightening the public. A quality exposition of the value of design, reading through the press release of iOS7 reminds me of a pitch for arts funding. I can’t think of […]